Monday, September 6

Enforced neglect of the allotment

In my earlier blog post, I mentioned that, for various reasons, we didn't visit the allotment other than to do some necessary harvesting. This week matters were even worse and we only managed a harvesting session on Sunday.

Martyn suffers from bad nosebleeds and, the week before last he had a bleed, that took over an hour and a half to stop so we didn't do much on the allotment as we didn't want to risk setting the bleed off again. Last week, matters were worse and another nosebleed caused, Martyn to be admitted to hospital for a couple of days. Not the sort of thing you need at the best of times, but at the moment hospitals are not the safest places to be in. Fortunately, Martyn was in a room on his own as the nosebleed meant he was unable to wear the required mask. 

When he came home, Martyn had to avoid bending down or any strenuous activity so any work on the allotment was out of the question.

If you imagine how an allotment looks after a two week holiday multiply by two. If we had been going on holiday we would have prepared for the absence. On top of this, we haven't had any rain for a while now and our soil is bone dry and some crops, especially those newly planted, really could have done with some watering. Courgettes had assumed monstrous proportions.
I didn't take any general photos, as it was too depressing a sight, but we did put together a video.

I managed some emergency watering but mainly we concentrated on harvesting.
September 5 - Mixed dahlias, Sweet Peas,  Climbing French Beans - Cobra, Plums - Victoria & Marjorie's Seedling, Greengages - Mannings, Blackberries - Loch Ness, A sprinkling of Blueberries, Beetroot - Boltardy, Carrots - Flakee, Cabbages - Mozart, Tomatoes - Sungold, Crimson Crush , Crimson Plum & Shirley, Raspberries - All Gold, Apples - Fiesta and Peas - Onward & Terrain

Martyn concentrated on harvesting the crops that he could manage from an upright position like the blackberries. Loch Ness produces some fairly large fruits.
We decided to lift a different variety of carrot, this time the variety was Flakee. As with Romance we pulled up some good sized carrots, although as is usual for us some were 'interesting' shapes.
I also lifted a few beetroot, the first of the season. We don't eat a lot of beetroot so we only sowed a short row. These will be pickled.
This year, varieties of apples have fared differently. The Discovery apples that usually crop well produced just half a dozen fruits but the small Fiesta tree has produced its best crop. I'm guessing it all came down to when the trees had blossom.
The plums and greengages both flower early and none of the trees have produced as much fruit as usual but at least we have some to enjoy.
Our garden and garden greenhouse have continued to keep us supplied with tomatoes, mini cucumbers and, I even managed to remember to photograph, some radishes. We've made good use of the salad ingredients as Martyn had to eat only cold food for a couple of days. 

Neither of us was impressed with the food that the hospital managed to offer him. For one of his meals the only option was a small scoop of ice cream. No other cold options were provided, despite him being on cold food only. He asked for either a sandwich or a salad but was told neither was available. If he had stayed in for a further meal his only option was a slice of cheesecake. Unfortunately, we didn't find out that I could have visited until it was too late as I could have popped down to the on site cafe and bought him something from there.

We did have a couple of cooked meals that used some of our vegetables. The first was a cabbage stir fry with cashews. Into this went our onion, carrots and cabbage, along with mushrooms, peppers, celery and cashews. It was based on this recipe.

On Tuesday, whilst, Martyn was 'enjoying' his ice cream dinner, I made myself a vegetable tagine. Into this went our onion, courgette, cherry tomatoes and peas along with some chickpeas. It was based on this recipe although I used a ras el hanout spice mix instead of the individual spices.
We're hoping for a less fraught week, this week. Wish us luck. Just to cheer us up though we have clusters of tiny cyclamen popping up on the plot and in the garden. They appear in the most unexpected and inhospitable places. We don't know how they arrived at the allotment as we never planted any there. Presumably, the seeds hitched a ride on something brought from the garden. Over the years the flowers have multiplied and spread. No doubt the armies of ants have been very busy.

As always wherever you are keep safe and well.

This week I   am once again joining in with Dave’s Harvest Monday collection of posts over at Our Happy Acres.


Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

20 comments:

  1. Your harvests look good despite the enforced neglect!

    Tell Martyn I can truly empathize with his nosebleeds as I have a history of them too, including one overnight stay in the hospital. They usually have to cauterize mine to get them to stop. Gardening can sometimes set them off for me.

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    1. Martyn has had his cauterized several times too, Dave A few years ago we were rushing to A&E every night. Always in the early hours. This is the second time that he was actually admitted.

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  2. well you soldered on and got a nice harvest in spite of Martyn,s problem, I suppose bendimg down is not the right way to prevent a weak blood vessel hope its gets cured soon.

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    1. I think it's a case of wait and see, David. His mostly set off in the middle of the night when he is in bed!

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  3. Oh I have every sympathy for Martyn Sue having suffered from some bad nosebleeds myself. Have been taken to hospital once by ambulance (fortunately no blue lights) but escaped from having to stay overnight. I had my nose cauterised and my sense of smell has not been the same since 😢 I hope that he is still taking things easy especially in this current hot spell. I'm sure that your plot will recover from a relatively short absence although it will be getting you down. You still have some great harvests and those little cyclamen are beauties!

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    1. I had to call for an ambulance this time, Anna. I don't know whether they used the blue lights as I wasn't allowed to so with him but the last time we went was during the day and the blue lights were employed then.

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  4. I am very sad to hear of Martyn's nose bleed problem. Is this standard NHS treatment? I am unfamiliar with it. My daughter-in-law when she needed surgery went to a private hospital. Your harvest looks wonderful to me. I like beet tops very much.

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    1. Yes it's standard NHS treatment, Jane. Martyn was in a room on his own due to Covid protocols

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  5. So sorry to hear that Martyn gets such severe nose bleeds, I hope that is it now and he doesn't get any more bad ones. My youngest is rather prone to them and they can definitely be quite dramatic at times. Not very impressed with the hospital food situation. Fantastic harvests from your plots though. It looks like it will be a good apple and pear year here.

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    1. It doesn't help, CJ when the paramedic arrived and uttered an expletive when he saw all the blood. It looked like a crime scene.

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  6. Oh those blackberries are gorgeous. I can taste them in my mind. As always the other fruit and flowers are enviable. Life does get in the way of the garden at times!

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  7. Hope Martyn is healing well, it's such a worry and sounds frightening. Hospital is not the place to be these days. As for the food, it's probably only good for losing weight. Mum's food was actually very good as she was on a special soft diet and her meals were brought in from an outside catering unit.

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    1. I would have thought good nutrition was part of the treatment, Deborah. He overheard a vegetarian trying to find something she could eat and cabbage pie was her only option. Of course, Martyn could have had cold cabbage pie!

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  8. I hope Martyn's on the mend now. My mum suffered terribly with nosebleeds too, she was carted off to hospital by ambulance on numerous occasions and kept in until they could get it under control. She resorted to carrying a towel around the house with her when she was in the midst of a spate of them, the amount of blood she lost was unbelievable. I think it's terrible that the only thing offered to Martyn was ice cream. Surely they could have rustled him up a sandwich from somewhere, that's awful treatment for a patient.

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    1. The frustrating thing, Jo is that they have a really good canteen on the premises. I seem to remember that last time he was in for the same thing, I popped down and bought him some sandwiches. That was one Christmas Eve. He came out on Christmas Day and we were on cold food only over Christmas.

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  9. Oh dear! I hope things improve this week.
    Some great harvests though, as usual, and the cashew stir fry is making me feel hungry! Unlike the hospital meals which is shocking, even in these difficult times.
    Best wishes to Martyn

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  10. Goodness, poor Martyn, those nose bleeds sounds horrendous. I'm shocked the hospital couldn't rustle up a sandwich or salad, that's outrageous! I'm glad you managed a harvest, as always it's impressive. Your meals are lovely, hopefully Martyn is back to enjoying decent food.xxx

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  11. Sue, I hope Martin is better now. I have found for you about nose bleeds:

    'Doctors prescribe vitamin K to help regulate blood clotting. It is found in Green leafy vegetables, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, green peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin, asparagus, potatoes, oatmeal, cereals, rose hips, green tea, kiwi, bananas, avocado, olive and soybean oil - all these representatives of the flora contain vitamin K.
    Animal products saturated with vitamin K are pork and beef liver, milk and dairy products, chicken eggs and fish oil.
    The clinical picture in K-vitamin deficiency is characterized by the appearance of ecchymosis, hematomas, bleeding (usually nasal)'.

    Your crop is wonderful. I liked your beetroots, plums and flowers.

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    1. That's interesting Nadezda, thank you. We do eat lots of the foods on the list.

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